by Emeraude Charron and Karina Hunter

Friday, myself, my mom and my grandma joined JK to Grade 7 students, from Our Lady of Lourdes and Manitouwadge Public School, at the Manitouwadge High School theatre to enjoy a performance by the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra (TBSO). The high school Principal, Mr. Brian Johnson, welcomed us to his school and introduced the Concertmaster, Stéphane Potvin, who helped the orchestra tune their instruments before beginning their performance.  

Concertmaster Potvin gave us a short introduction to each piece before it was played, encouraging us to listen carefully for special parts of each song like solos by certain instruments, movements within the songs where the music changed dramatically, or his favourite parts of the musical selections.  He also taught us about different chords, groups of notes played together, as the keyboardist played an example of each; major, minor, augmented and diminished chords. We were also introduced instrumental sections of the orchestra, wind, strings, brass, percussion, as each played songs independently.   

I enjoyed clapping along to some of the songs and saw other kids dancing in front of their seats.  It was amazing to learn about all the parts of the orchestra and the songs they played.  The last song was a compilation of musical numbers from a movie called Pirates of the Caribbean and had many different types of music within it, many kids who had seen the movie recognized its songs. After the performance, the kids left to go back to their schools and I was able to meet some of the musicians. My favourite instrument was the French Horn which had a very unique sound that could be heard among all the other instruments; the keyboardist showed me all the sounds her instrument could mimic and a viola player let me hold her bow, which she used to play her viola. 

The orchestra played another performance afterwards for the older kids from Grade 8 through Grade 12 before leaving Manitouwadge to travel to Marathon and Terrace Bay where they would perform for more school children.

Submitted to The Echo, 12.07.09

**If you didn’t already, try this KEYBOARD LINK to play a virtual keyboard on your screen. Really cool stuff!**